Itaru Takahara was born in Nagasaki in 1923. While studying at the Tokyo Photography and Engineer School (Today’s Tokyo Polytechnic University), he was mobilized into the Japanese Student Army. After the end of the war, he worked as a photographer in the Western Japan branch of Mainichi Shinbun for two years, and became a freelance photographer. In 1953, Takahara opened his photograph studio, “Nagasaki Photo Service.” He captured many historical events by his camera, such as Emperor Hirohito’s visit to Nagasaki in 1949 and the entry of U.S’s nuclear power-aircraft USS Enterprise into Nagasaki in 1968. He received the first prize in the National Tourism Photograph Competition. He published photograph collections The Ways of Xavier (1988) and Portugal (1993). Takahara was conferred a title “Commendatore” from the Portuguese Government for his cultural contribution to the friendship between Portugal and Japan. In 2010, his photo collections of the ruins of the Urakami Cathedral, Nagasaki Urakami Cathedral, 1945-1958: An Atomic Bomb Relic Lost was published.